1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to emergency evacuation systems and more particularly to such systems as applied to high-rise buildings, particularly as used in connection with fire emergencies in such buildings.
2. Prior Art
A search of the prior art in the Patent Office revealed the following patents, which are related to but do not anticipate our invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,306 (Lyons) issue date Apr. 19, 1977.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,199 (Sellards) issue date Mar. 17, 1981.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,693 (Fry) issue date Oct. 24, 1978.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,917 (Kendrick) issue date Oct. 30, 1978.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,306 (Lyons) discloses a plurality of vertical railroads attached to the side of the building. Mobile units are installed on the vertical railroads on a safe side of the building. The mobile units are raised and lowered on the vertical railroad tracks by means of hoist ropes and a climbing hoist. Such installations would be incredibly expensive because of their permanent nature. As a result of that economic fact and the fact that architecturally the buildings would be very unattractive with railroad tracks running up and down the sides of the buildings, the system of the Lyons patent has no practical significance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,199 (Sellards) shows a rescue system in which a self-powered trolley is moved along a tensioned cable connected between the top of the building and some fixed object spaced from the building, for example a fire plug. The problem with this system is that, at the lower floors of the building, the cable is spaced especially far from the building so that is not possible to properly communicate between the building and the platform which rides up and down the tensioned cable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,693 (Fry) fails to show a structure which is completely stable, in that the cabin for removing persons from the building being evacuated is supported only by the chain or cable which it is adapted to self-climb. Also, there is a problem of the space between the rescue cabin and the building, which space makes it difficult for a party wishing to escape the building to bridge the gap between the cabin and the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,917 (Kendrick) discloses a rescue system in which the rescue cabin or basket is raised and lowered by means of a cable with a second cable being provided in the form of a tie-line to guide the basket away from and toward the building, the cable being tensioned at the bottom and by being pulled away from the building by truck to which the cable is attached at its lower end. Once again there is the problem of stable spacing between the rescue cabin and the building from which the evacuation is occurring. With the system of the Kendrick patent it would be difficult to align the rescue cabin with the escape opening in the building and with a practical spacing of the cabin from the building.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide for a high-rise building an emergency evacuation system which is free of the various problems and limitations recited hereinbefore.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a system for the safe and reliable evacuation of people from a high-rise building in which system the escape cabin is stable during its raising and lowering process and is proximate to the building from which the evacuation is being effected.
It is a still additional object of this invention to provide an evacuation system for high-rise building in which system the escape cabin may be accurately positioned with respect to the escape opening in the high-rise building from which the evacuation is being effected.